It was the last of May, by the foreign style, when they arrived off this cape; and the month of June, by the same style, being that in which the Manila ships are usually expected, the Centurion's people were now waiting each hour with the utmost impatience for the happy crisis which was to balance the account of all their past calamities. As from this time there was but small employment for the crew, the Commodore ordered them almost every day to be exercised in the management of the great guns and in the use of their small arms. This had been his practice, more or less, at all convenient seasons during the whole course of his voyage, and the advantages which he received from it in his engagement with the galleon were an ample recompense for all his care and attention. The men were taught the shortest method of loading with cartridges, and were constantly trained to fire at a mark, which was usually hung at the yard-arm, and some little reward was given to the most expert. The whole crew, by this management, were rendered extremely skilful, quick in loading, all of them good marksmen, and some of them most extraordinary ones, so that I doubt not but, in the use of small arms, they were more than a match for double their number who had not been habituated to the same kind of exercise. AN ILL-TIMED DISAGREEMENT. It was the last of May, New Style, as has been already said, when the Centurion arrived off Cape Espiritu Santo, and consequently the next day began the month in which the galleons were to be expected. The Commodore therefore made all necessary preparations for receiving them. All this time, too, he was very solicitous to keep at such a distance from the cape as not to be discovered; but it has been since learned that notwithstanding his care, he was seen from the land, and advice of him was sent to Manila, where it was at first disbelieved; but on reiterated intelligence (for it seems he was seen more than once) the merchants were alarmed, and the Governor was applied to, who undertook (the commerce supplying the necessary sums) to fit out a force consisting of two ships of 32 guns, one of 20 guns, and two sloops of 10 guns each, to attack the Centurion on her station. And some of these vessels did actually weigh with this view, but the principal ship not being ready, and the monsoon being against them, the commerce and the Government disagreed, and the enterprise was laid aside. This frequent discovery of the Centurion from the shore was somewhat extraordinary, for the pitch of the cape is not high, and she usually kept from ten to fifteen leagues distant, though once, indeed, by an indraught of the tide, as was supposed, they found themselves in the morning within seven leagues of the land. CHAPTER 34. THE CAPTURE OF THE GALLEON.